The Character of Hamlet in the Course of the Play - Essay Example

 Hamlet is perhaps the most famous play of alienation ever written. While this essay will concentrate on the character of Hamlet himself, many other characters also exhibit alienation in the course of the play. Ophelia is alienated by her misunderstanding of Hamlet’s actions, Polonius by the fact that his trite philosophy (“to thine own self be true etc.) cannot explain the subtleties of actual human behavior. Gertrude and Claudius by their guilt, and even minor characters such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are alienated by their casual willingness to be used by others, something which eventually leads to their deaths. + It is in the character of Hamlet that alienation is most acutely explored, and it is on him that this essay will concentrate, specifically within the first scene in which Hamlet appears. * Alienation can be seen within Hamlet’s soliloquies, his conversations with other characters and within his actions. Hamlet may be regarded as the prototype for the scores of “angry young men” what have populated literature, poetry, plays and latterly films since he first appeared on the stage. Hamlet’s alienation is personified by his opening line: HAMLET (aside): A little more than kin, and less than kind. (I.2, 65) (Shakespeare, 1956) It is the fact that his first line is an aside that so perfectly encapsulates his alienation from a society that he should be the center of. He does not speak the line to his Uncle, or even the Court, but rather as an inward comment aimed at breaking the third wall of the stage for the audience. He is alienated from his world, and part of ours because of it. As the play continues Hamlet’s alienation deepens and starts to influence many of those around him. When he decides to put “an antic disposition on” (I.5, 175) the question arises for the rest of the play whether he is playing at being mad, genuinely mad, or perhaps both. Here is the second part of “alienation” – madness that removes a person from the common spheres of reality. But Hamlet’s madness is in fact closer to the reality and genuine feeling than those supposedly sane people around him. Thus later in the scene when he is chided for carrying on with his mourning beyond that which is seen as convenient or seemly, he answers, “I have that within which passeth show.” (I.2, 85) Others show their feelings on the outside, they are merely masks of feeling while Hamlet genuinely feels on the inside. The fact that he cannot show what he feels properly, or more importantly, act upon what he feels brings further alienation. After the King chides Hamlet for being too gloomy, the latter produces another pun, as he states “not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun” (I.2, 67). Thus the fact that Hamlet is too much in the ‘light’ for his liking is mirrored with the fact that he is too much a “son”. Hamlet cannot forget his father as the rest of the kingdom appears to have found it so easy to do. This sense of aloneness is another case of alienation for the young prince. He uses a bitter kind of humor to try and hide it, but it is a futile attempt. When Gertrude attempts to lighten the mood by saying that Hamlet’s attitude “seems” peculiar to him, Hamlet retorts with the following: . . . seems madam? Nay, it is. I know not seems. (I.2, 76) Later in the play these themes develop to fruition. When the actor cries over the death of his imaginary lover Hamlet is disgusted with himself, “what’s Hecuba to him or he to her?” (III.1, 497). Nothing is the silent reply, but the actor can show more emotion than Hamlet when can when his father has been genuinely murdered. In this opening scene the King and Queen say far more to Hamlet than he says in return. This illustrates the fact that words can at times be used to dissemble rather than communicate. The King and Queen use words to hide the obvious impropriety of their marriage so soon after Hamlet’s father’s death. Hamlet says so little because there is little that needs to be said. He regards the facts about the marriage as so obvious that they do not need to be commented upon. He is, at this point at least, alienated by his inability to use words to cover up the truth of his feelings. Later in the play of course a deluge of words will come from Hamlet, but these are often confusing and confused: they are part of his “antic disposition”. Here in the opening scene the audience perhaps sees the “true” Hamlet. Greenblatt ( 2002) suggests that Hamlet’s actions and words from this point on must be placed under the microscope of this “antic disposition”. The reader/audience must constantly consider whether Hamlet is genuinely feeling something or whether he is acting the emotion. Perhaps the deepest alienation that anyone can feel is the wish to leave the world permanently through suicide. It is an even deeper alienation when that individual is young, rich and the heir to a throne. Hamlet’s famous “to be or not to be” speech is an example of such alienation and, true to the form of the amoral world that Shakespeare has drawn in Hamlet he does not decide not to commit suicide for any ethical reasons, but rather for the practical fears of what may come in death. “What dreams may come” (II.1, 66)he wonders in a frightened manner. As Hoy (1991) has suggested, it is this fear perhaps the ultimately draws him into action. He must act because the alternative is a suicide that he cannot face. To conclude, the opening scene in which Hamlet appears illustrates his deep alienation from the world. It is an alienation caused by the fact that he still mourns his father and is unable to appear to celebrate his mother’s marriage to the new King. Hamlet is genuine, whereas those around him are artificial, at least in his own eyes. The fact that he will spend much of the play pretending to be mad is ironic considering this early insistence upon genuine feelings and an emphasis on the display of actual emotions. His words are cutting, to the point and memorable, while those of the King and Queen, although more superficially eloquent in nature, are in fact forgettable. It is the presence of Hamlet’s alienation that dominates the scene rather than the show of the wedding. _____________________________________________ Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton UP, New York: 2002. Hoy, Cyrus. Hamlet: An Authoritative Text, Intellectual Backgrounds, Extracts from the Sources, Essays in Criticism. WW Norton, London: 1991. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. In The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Penguin, New York: 1956. Read More